Thursday, February 07, 2008

Missing the point

Doing case papers? ... That get lost at court.Administration ? ... Meaning we have to fill out a book to get a shirt or a pen.Front desk? ... Giving wrong legal information to the pubicTaking statements? … That don’t contain even the points to prove let alone make sense.

Or perhaps the eyes and ears as CSO's ...

Watching kids drown and locking them self’s in a room when a 13 year old shouts at them

No Ronnie, what’s needed is fair pay and free reign to get back to doing what we do best, catching criminals and putting them to court.

I don’t think that’s fair at all. I know it’s said in a tongue and cheek kind of way, but what image does that give off.

The majority of PCSOs no doubt would jump in to save someone, I can give you a link now of a PCSO who did just that. I can also provide a link to a story of a PCSO who collared a bank robber, and a PCSO who disarmed a crazed man with a gun. I think less of people who use Daily Mail tactics and ridicule and rubbish 16,000 people because one single PCSO, somewhere in England, who didn’t want to jump in to look for a drowned person. I can think of many times, even here with police officers, when they have run in the opposite direction until backup arrives. You have an extremely unbalanced view I must say.

We also have some extremely competent front office staff with over a hundred years of services between them, providing great advice. Whats the average service of a response officer (two years or something?) Civilian statement takers who are highly trained in the expert field of 'putting a crime in to the PNLD search field' for points to prove. Though you’re right, it is difficult to do that. I simply cannot accept that it is better to have a police officer doing all the statements, all the paperwork leading to court, all the front office duties etc. Complete disagree.

Don’t be so melodramatic. Sworn officers aren’t going anywhere. They’ve just seen that some jobs don’t require the full powers, training and equipment of an expensive constable and can fill the position with non-warranted officers and staff. There have never been so many police officers! Remember back about a year, when they decided to scrap plans for 24,000 PCSOs for just 16,000?

To say one is better than the other is an unfair comparison. I look at a lot of sworn officer jobs; you know the jobs, away from the front line, that it wouldn’t make any difference at all if they were filled by non-warranted staff. comms, helicopter crew, HR, front office, prisoner processing teams, staff duties officers, witness support officers, SOCO. Lots of these positions are slowly getting taken over by non-warranted officers or staff and guess what; the world hasn’t caved in on itself.